The bloggers here see veganism as part of a larger anti-oppression movement. We, too, are frustrated & angered when vegans do not have a similarly intersectional approach.

That said, despite the complications sometimes involved, we are obviously still vegan for a reason.

Two parts of the post struck me particularly: Renee says though she eats meat, she “would certainly not support intentional animal cruelty.” This is something I have heard meat-eaters say not infrequently. Even leaving aside the issue of taking away an animal’s life (if one could leave that out of the equation!), information on how farmed animals are treated (beaks cut off without anesthetic, tails cut off without anesthetic, hung upside down on a slaughtering line & cut open while alive, boiled alive, kicked around by slaughterhouse workers, stuffed in wire cages unable to walk — to name only a few examples) is widely available & has received a lot of attention in the press over the last few years. This information is not a secret.

Intentional animal cruelty is central to the meat industry in places like the US, because it means more animals can be killed faster; to do otherwise would cut into profit. (& “happy meat”? A myth.) I’m not sure how much more intentional one could get.

The second part that struck me was the statement that some veg*ns use “their choices as a stepping ground to moralize to others.” This, too, is something that I have heard used many times in reference to veg*ns, though I’ve also heard similar statements used to critique feminists, anti-racist activists, etc. — it’s very easy to accuse someone of being preachy. I find it frustrating that the dominant ideology — to eat meat, in this case — is not recognized as an ideology, that the status quo is unquestioned & those disagreeing with it can be accused of moralizing while those in line with it are not espousing any moral view at all. (There’s lots about this in the recent book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism, discussed here.) Let’s at least be honest about the fact that the ideology of meat is indeed an ideology, & its proponents can be as moralizing as anyone else.

I’m curious. Is veganism important to you in selecting a partner? Over the past eight years, I have had a strict vegan-only policy. I tried to date someone who was not vegan about 10 years ago and it just didn’t work because I kept wanting him to change.

The 9th Annual North American Conference for Critical Animal Studies will be hosted at SUNY Cortland this year on Saturday, April 10th. The theme this year is “Abolition, Liberation, and the Intersections Within Social Justice.” I’m very excited about this conference, and plan to submit a proposal to present, and I’m super excited to see what sort of conversations can emerge from a conference that is dedicated to looking at intersections between animal abolition and other justice movements.

What I also find interesting is that this conference does not seem to be exclusively for academic types, but welcomes (encourages) proposals from activists, non-profits, and other non-academic members of the community. They are also open to formats other than simple presentations of papers, and list on their website such examples as theater and workshops.

I hope that many of our readers will submit proposals to the conference and/or attend in April. Proposals are due by February 15th.

For those on the other side of the Atlantic there is the European Critical Animal Studies Conference which is on April 23rd. Unfortunately (in my opinion) this conference has a different theme, The Future of Animal Studies, and has, as far as I can tell, already decided on speakers and so as no call for proposals. It is however the first European critical animal studies conference over there, and so is I guess expected to begin with developing a telos for themselves.

As I’ve expressed before, I’m very glad that animal studies is emerging as a serious area of academic and intellectual inquiry.

Yesterday The Guardian published an opinion piece entitled “The Five Fatal Flaws of Animal Activism.” The author, Victor Schonfeld, details his own life of caring about animals and then how his Animals and Us two part series on the BBC to demonstrate how organized groups have not accomplished much for animals, and how fresh perspectives are necessary.

But I’ve been inspired to make my own list of five weaknesses of animal activism which, in my opinion hinders the liberation of nonhuman (and human) animals.